The first thing you should ask before beginning any SEO or marketing campaign is: do I want to manage the entire project myself?

Certainly, there are many marketing and SEO professionals out there. The trouble is that most of the time it can be very difficult to establish their credentials as there is a low barrier to entry in the SEO business and there’s not really any licenses, certifications, or degrees in “search marketing” yet.

That said, there are some very qualified people who really “get it” when it comes to success with search engine optimization and internet marketing. These are people who live, eat, breathe, and sleep online marketing. They are passionate students of SEO and marketing with an insatiable thirst for knowledge.

If you’re lucky enough to find one of these individuals, pay them what their worth. Offer them bonuses. These professionals are worth their weight in marketing gold because of the value they can provide in putting your business ahead of the competition in the race to acquire leads through new media channels online (such as SEO).

On the flipside, hiring and retaining one of these people can be expensive, and since they’re eager to gain experience and expand their knowledge, they’ll always be looking for the next challenge, or the next big project… and eventually they’ll learn how to make money on their own. The point is, should they ever leave, you lose their entire skillset.

On the other hand, doing all the marketing for your own business is cost-effective and the knowledge and experience that you’ll gain from it is priceless. That said, it can be frustrating and frightening when you don’t at first see results. Our advice would be to stick with it.

There are many people who can handle the business operations side of a business, but few people who understand successful marketing. Since search marketing in the right hands is a potent source for acquiring new customers, taking the time to master it is a good investment.

But know that it will take a lot of time, commitment, persistence, and experience to become a true grandmaster in the area of search marketing. You’ll also have to become comfortable with the fact that your fate lies in the hands of a third party (Google), unlike many ventures where your success or failure is in your hands alone.

Successful search marketing isn’t like learning how to tie your shoe. Successful search marketing is more like learning how to juggle. It takes practice. At first, you may get frustrated and give up when you attempt to juggle and the balls keep falling to the ground. Sometimes it seems as though all of your practice isn’t making a difference.

But eventually, your hands to start to memorize the correct motions. After a week of practice, you’ll be juggling three balls with some difficulty. Some more time practicing and it becomes almost effortless. Then you move onto juggling 4 or even 5 balls.

Many people make the mistake of trying something once, and get frustrated when they don’t immediately see results. Don’t make this mistake yourself. Develop a good plan and stick to it. Go back to it often. Don’t stop implementing, practicing, and tweaking until you have it down.

The biggest reason that most internet marketers FAIL is because they neglect to create a “grand” strategy for themselves, and follow a carefully-laid plan. With the information avalanche that’s currently taking place on the net, too many newcomers get pulled in a thousand different directions, with information from a thousand different sources. As a result they “try” things, but they don’t stick with a plan or blueprint for any length of time. So of course they don’t see results. Again, don’t make this mistake yourself.

If you follow and implement my 7-step plan, I am confident that you will see a dramatic increase in your search engine rankings as a result. I’ve tested countless methods and techniques and the ones that work best become a fixed principle of the system.

We’ve proven them through repeated tests. The steps outlined in our free eBook will be enough to get you ranked high for most keywords, but as a disclaimer, there are many number of market conditions that exist beyond our control that may or may not be be present in your individual industry. Also, I can’t guarantee that results will necessarily happen very quickly if you’re choosing the wrong keywords, or ones that are too competitive.

Our 7-Step System doesn’t discuss in detail the importance of keyword research, which you should absolutely do before any SEO campaign. We will however make the following suggestions to help you with your keyword research.

1. Use Google Keyword Tool to find good keywords related to your business

2. Download SEOQuake add-on for Firefox and install it, and

3. Use SEOQuake to “add-up” the PR (PageRank) of all of the sites currently displaying for your desired keyword phrase, and then divide that number by 10. If the number you arrive at is less than 3, then there’s a very good chance you can rank quickly for that phrase. You can use this same method for determining the competitiveness of any keyword phrase.

This is the very least you can do when it comes to keyword research, but many people don’t even do any research at all! To get to where you want to go, it helps to know where you’re going.
As David Ogilvy said, “A blind pig can occasionally find a truffle. But it helps to know that they’re found in oak forests.” The same rule applies to SEO.

Finally, a few additional points: this guide is meant to be like an encyclopedia. It’s meant to be a reference. The best way to use it is to read it and find all of the parts that you like and all of the ideas, skills and techniques that you would like to implement. Then take those sections and either write them down or print them so you can review them and practice.

Download our most popular eBook ever for free – the “7 Step System for SEO Results” – which will teach you how to get your websites ranked in Google for many popular terms fast.

…You’ll be glad you did.

And do me a favor. Drop us a line and let us know your comments, suggestions, or questions.

LavaLink is an award-winning, premium WordPress design and web marketing company. Bootstrapped and built in the trenches, LavaLink teaches designers, small businesses and entrepreneurs a results-by-design approach to marketing their business online.

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